Rail-bend lubricating device for rail-cars



United States Patent OfiFice 2,724,458 Patented Nov. 22, 1955 RAIL-BEND LUBRICATING DEVICE FOR IL-CARS Nils G. E. Allard, Stockholm, Sweden Application July 24, 1951, Serial No. 238,343

1 Claim. (Cl. 184-3) The present invention relates to a rail-bend lubricating device for rail-cars, such as tram-cars, railway-cars or the like, and rail-switches, specially rails for tram-cars.

Rail sections exposed to exceptional, severe wear, owing to friction between the rail and the flanged wheel, have hitherto been oiled manually. This has involved large costs and much work, at the same time being dangerous for the oiler, who is unprotected in the traffic. Further, up to the present time oiling of the flanges of the wheels has been tried but that method has brought about the risk of the lubricant being spread to such surfaces that come into contact with the horizontal part of the rail, thereby causing risk of skidding.

The present invention concerns a device by means of which the above disadvantages are eliminated. It is chiefly characterized by jets, required for spreading the lubricant, being fitted on a rail-car and arranged so as to spread the lubricant mainly in a horizontal direction on the vertical surfaces of the rail where the friction is great, said jets also being so arranged that they yield elastically when coming into contract with vertical parts of the rail or some other solid object.

The invention is here more extensively described in connection with the attached drawing, Fig. 1 showing a lubricating device for rail-bends fitted on a rail-car and seen from the side. Fig. 2 shows a cross section in order to explain how the jets are placed in relation to the rail.

On the drawing 1 signifies a rail with a groove 2 to steer the wheel 3, carried in the bearing-box 4. To the oil-container 5 a pressure pipe 6 is connected. Oil is filled in the container 5 through the oil-filling opening 7. The air-pressure is read on the pressuregauge 8 and the container is supplied with a relief-valve 9. The oil coming from container 5 is cleaned in the oil-purifier 10 and flows through the conduit 11 to a branch-off, then continues through the two branch conduits 12 to the spraying jets consisting of a flexible metal tube 13 surrounded by an elastic wrapping such as piano wire 20 and the spraying tapers 14 which can have one hole for railway-rails or two holes for tram-car rails. Due to the provision of the elastic wrapping the jets return to their original position after collision with some object. The spraying jets are attached to the bearing-box by means of a bracket 15. The flow of oil can be turned on or 011. by means of a control valve 16 of conventional type. In the position shown in the drawing the valve 16 is located in its closed position. The top of the valve 16 is engaged by one end of a lever 17 which is pivoted intermediate its ends and which is maintained in the position shown in the drawing by a helical tension spring 18. The other end of the lever 17 is attached to a wire 19. In order to open the valve 17 the operator pulls the wire 19 thereby turning the lever 17 and extending the spring 18. Then the end of the lever 17 will push the valve 16 downwardly, thereby opening the valve. As soon as the pull upon the wire 19 is released the spring 18 will swing the lever 17 back into the position shown in the drawing and then an inner spring (not shown) will move the valve 16 back to its closed position shown in the drawing. When the apparatus is not in action, the oil can be turned off by a stop cock 20a positioned close to the container. The spraying jets are advantageously placed close to the contacting point of the car-wheel and the rail in order to prevent unnecessarily large displacement of the jets in relation to the rail in the rail-bends. The holding arrangement of the spraying jetscan suitably be placed in front of the wheel and leaning towards the wheel at an angle of about 45. Thereby collision with possible objects will be milder and the jets also come closer to where the wheel contacts the rail. In special lubrication cases, the jet can be fitted at the rear of the wheel. In order to reduce still more the momentary displacements of the jets in relation to the rail, especially with regard to the height position, they can be fitted with their yielding arrangement on the bearingbox of a wheel. If the brackets are fitted on any other part of the car the spring suspension of it will cause accidental injurious movements relative to the rails.

I claim:

A vehicle-carried device for lubricating the bends of grooved rails, said device comprising a bracket extending adjacent to a wheel of the vehicle, a spraying jet carried by said bracket and extending adjacent and in close proximity to said wheel, said jet consisting of a flexible tube and an elastic wrapping consisting of wound piano wire, said jet having a taper portion extending into the groove of the rail and having side openings formed therein for spraying the side walls of the groove whereby said jet yields elastically when it comes in contact with the groove or with an object upon the rail and then returns to its initial position, a vehicle-carried lubricant container, a conduit for a lubricant intermediate said container and said jet, a control valve for said jet, spring tension means intermediate said control valve and said bracket for operating said control valve, and remotely-actuated means connected with said control valve for operating the same.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 383,558 Criswell May 29, 1888 830,241 Love Sept. 4, 1906 1,027,930 Tanner May 28, 1912 1,497,177 Long June 10, 1924 1,510,721 Frieck Oct. 7, 1924 FOREIGN PATENTS 975,252 France Oct. 11, 1950 603,952 Germany Oct. 11, 1934 

